Sakurai hopes Richter's appearance in Smash Bros. Ultimate helps more people learn about the character, talks King K. Rool's inclusion

We've already covered some tidbits from Sakurai's most recently weekly feature in Famitsu, but now we have some specifics on two particular characters. First up is a bit of talk on the inclusion of Richter in Smash Bros. Ultimate. Translation courtesy of NintendoEverything.

As for the reveal movie, I put my absolute all into making it, even if it was just a character reveal. I’d imagine there were a lot of people that went, “huh!? Who’s Richter!?” too. I’d be happy if those people could become more familiar with the character through Smash Bros. Ultimate.

While Castlevania was a huge reveal for the game, it did leak the night before. On the other hand, the reveal of King K. Rool was a complete surprise! Sakurai explains why the character made the cut, and some tweaks that had to be made.

When deciding what fighters would be included in this game, we used Smash for Wii U/3DS’ character survey as reference. Ultimately, we found that King K. Rool from the Donkey Kong Country series was one of the most popular picks! In the reveal, I felt it’d be better if I left room for imagination, so I didn’t really explain his moveset or the character’s peculiarities. To capture King K. Rool’s likeness, I based his fighter on the fact that he “stands upright.” Yet because of the height limit, I had to make him a little smaller compared to his original appearance, so he’s not exactly to scale – sorry about that.